England footballer brings a whole-ass PC setup to the World Cup just to play Fortnite
Goalie Jordan Pickford couldn't leave the battle royale at home.
When I leave the house for extended periods of time—which is, to be fair, not very often—I miss my setup quite a bit. I'm not sure I could survive an entire month without it, and neither can England footballer Jordan Pickford.
As spotted by Eurogamer, a recent interview with the goalkeeper showed him lugging around a pretty hefty hard travel case imprinted with his initials. Inside that case? A powerful custom-built gaming laptop and monitor to hook it up to. Pickford said he has a proper rig at home and was bringing a laptop during his travels, but it was "winding [him] up" playing Fortnite on a smaller screen.
The England team's love for Epic's battle royale has been well-known. A 2018 interview with defender Kieran Trippier revealed that the team enjoyed playing Fortnite as a way of team-building and unwinding between games during the last World Cup. Players like Jesse Lingard and Dele Alli were also spotted doing Fortnite celebration dances during that time.
That enthusiasm seems to have continued. When interviewer Josh Denzel asked what Pickford's doing to relax between games, he said "try and do recovery, feel good about yourself, whatever you need. Spend some time with the lads… Fortnite, still on the Fortnite vibe." When Denzel pointed out that it was "a proper bit of kit," Pickford said he "wasn't messing about," adding he was "trying to get the best frames and that. Get the upper hand."
I'm dying to know what Pickford's at-home and travelling setups are like. I've no doubt they're housing some pretty beefy components, especially with how much he seems to love Fortnite. He made no mention of there being any extra peripherals inside that travel case, but I doubt he's running around the map using a goddamn trackpad.
It's understandable that Pickford doesn't want to be missing out on Fortnite while he's away on World Cup business. Chapter 4 marks a whole new era for the battle royale. It's been bumped up to Unreal Engine 5.1, which Morgan Park said turned the game into "a graphical powerhouse overnight." He's not wrong—the game looks pretty bloody stunning and makes me damn excited for future UE5 games like Tekken 8 and The Witcher 4.